3D Topo Katahdin Cocobolo

[scottp55]

Tallest Mountain in Maine, and kind of a "right of passage" to climb Katahdin for us 7 kids(translates as "Greatest Mountain").
Dad said he needed a piece of wood to "knock on" in his truck, sooooo...
Cocobolo was a gift from a guy who makes Scottish "Short Pipes" for a day Demo'ing Desktop.
Couldn't seem to get the hang of Paul Rowntree's Big Topo(might have helped if I had read .pdf and done his sample all the way through )
But got this off of Yeggi;
http://www.yeggi.com/q/katahdin/
Going to have to "Tip" that guy:)
Onsrud .25" 30engraving bit with .005"flat.
20% stepover at (IPS) 1,1,18K carving against the grain with no roughing cut.
Straight off machine with no sanding, light coat of my Linseed/Beeswax brushed on last night.
scott

[antennasDIY]

Nice! I can't figure out the BigTopo either so don't feel bad.

[scottp55]

Lacewood version 50% larger.
(Dad love his little Cocobolo today:)
MASSIVE difference between the woods...Cocobolo went straight to brushing on the finish....Lacewood I swapped bits twice, and changed to an Offset/Conventional cut after letting a 80/20 thinned Tung sit overnight on the roughing path....finish to get the fuzzies to lie down and behave was 3 hours burnishing with a babmboo skewer....thought it was a failure after blowing it of with 90psi.
Lot of work, but I like the effect.
scott

[scottp55]

Oh, Just thought I should credit TPSully who made the model and has Many others that looked interesting
http://www.thingiverse.com/tpsully/designs/page:1
It imported into VCP8.5 without any problems.
scott

[scottp55]

Another TPSully(Thingiverse) model he made for me the day after I requested it:)
I was using Pauls BigTopo and entering the COI when the file popped up in my e-mail...I'm lazy...I cut the file:)
Mount Desert Island (Acadia National Park location)
3.2X4" practice cut, Never cut Claro before on CNC.
JUST off the machine, and a quick shot of air and a brush.
Claro Walnut
scott

[Tundraman]

Scott,
Looks great! Was just there on July 1&2. Beautiful place, was my first trip to upper Northeast. Would love to go back and spend a little more time. Looking forward to seeing the larger one.
Keep up the good work,
Scott

[scottp55]

Thanks Scott!
I mucked up at the last minute by putting the designers name/year at lower left,while tired:(
I did "Text in a Box" while zoomed way in on a font I had never used raised(Vladimir Script), in a wood I'd never done it in, and without checking the actual font size:(
Should have realized how small it was when a .005" tip wouldn't cut the inside of the loops in the "L"s, BUT I got cute and described it as a VBit....
Which of course made the font wood even thinner:)
Good to do a small scale first, as on the top where the bit could cut full speed, I'm a shade too fast and got fiber tearout lines.
Not positive Claro is best for the bigger one, as I can't seem to predict the "Tan" spots.
Looking at my Eastern Black Walnut and Cherry slabs for either all heartwood, or a predictable heart/sap line that might be interesting.
Yep, MDI is beautiful...lived there for 6 months while working in 2 boatyards...and after 3 months, had to KICK myself for taking the Picture Postcard views for granted:)
This is really interesting if you're familiar with the area
scott
Still working on BigTopo so I'm not dependent on others work, and can focus on small areas of personal or tourist interest.
I LIKE doing these...very satisfying

[scottp55]

After a lot of indecision and recalcing half the suitable shorts in the shop:(
Finally prepped the 7X9X.9" Sugar Maple.
I've noticed people like to pick them up and rotate at all angles, so the big Teak and Walnut slabs went bye bye when I saw a 26 hour estimate.
Getting too old for cutting marathons.
Cut is .4" deep and I think you can see what I'm hoping for in the end grain pic.
Hoping it will look like sun just rising from Cadillac Mt with half the island in shadow.
May be a disaster aesthetically, but hoping.
Estimate is 16 hours, so 6am tomorrow it is:)
scott

[LittleGreyMan]

Nice work.
Always amazed by the details you get on miniature objects.

[scottp55]

Thanks LGM!
The "Amazed" look on peoples faces when they handle it is what I shoot for:)
I was thinking about what you said about "softening edges" when I was looking for woods.....hoping on this choice.
Time for a triple Sumatran espresso!
Still need to check for odd "Lifts/plunges" in toolpath.
scott

[scottp55]

Oh, just a note.
Didn't need to do a roughing toolpath as this is only .388" deep and well within the .5"CEL of the Onsrud .25" 30 degree engraving bit with .01"flat.
But instead of duplicating the toolpath as usual, and making the speeds super slow for that first plunge and couple lines, and then running the real toolpath,I tried something different.
I Z-Zeroed to spoilboard as usual, and then manually moved Z up +.3" and zeroed my Z axis and cut the 90,90,18K toolpath for several lines.
Then moved Z -.1" and Zeroed Z again and ran toolpath again,
repeat until I got to my original Z, and it's cutting now, and seemed to work better than my previous method with that initial plunge however slow.
Stepover is 20% of the engraving tip(standard for engraving bit category) and Maple fuzzies get cut off smooth.
Cutting against the grain which is my norm for the woods I usually cut.
scott

[AJF]

Hi Scott
I like your idea of doing small 3d Topos. In the past I've just done large ones and the cutting time was a marathon event. People are fascinated by these topo carvings and they are a great tool to help people visualize the terrain. It is interesting watching people trying to understand their surroundings when they have a carving of their area in front of them. I did one of the the area we live in and donated it to our local community centre. Turned out to be a useful learning tool for the community.

[scottp55]

33% done at 2:46:00 and just getting into the mountains.
Highest peak is arguably the first point in US that the sun hits, and as you look at it you're facing the sunrise, so the dark mountain shadow is fairly close:)
First time I've ever cut exactly as programmed with fussing with the feed...going to have to change my multiplier:)
May eat supper at a reasonable time
Fingers crossed on when the darker wood runs out.
scott
edit;
NICE job! I think that's the one that got me started on this
Yep, My Mom said "It's just a bunch of Mountains....which one is Katahdin?" I held it sideways and asked her which was the tallest mountain?
She put her finger right on it, and said "I climbed THAT on my honeymoon!!!?" (First and Last time she ever went camping too:)
It's a little like looking at satellite pics without an orientation:)
Sat in a Houston motel room one night watching the live pics on the local cable space center channel for 4 hours and didn't recognize ONE Darn Thing!

[scottp55]

Straight off machine with a just stiff brushing.

[scottp55]

A medium coat of 80/20 polymerized linseed oil/beeswax butter brushed on,wiped off 30 minutes later.
A little knife work on sides left to do, and break the edge with 600G to match the other 4 sides.